April 5, 2002	Friday	Muharram 21, 1423

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KARACHI, April 4: Pakistan leave for Sharjah Friday morning unsure of the fitness of Younis Khan and Yousuf Youhana who missed Thursday one-day final with injuries.

Pakistan coach Mudassar Nazar, nevertheless, maintained that Youhana had been declared fit by the doctors but was unaware of the extent of injury to Younis Khan.

“I don’t know what is the problem with Younis. He hasn’t informed me but Youhana has been declared fit by the doctors,” he said.

However, when asked if Youhana was fit, why he didn’t play the match, he was non-commital.

Youhana is struggling with groin injury while Younis has a bad back. Youhana suffered the injury while playing for PIA in the last league match of the National One-day Championship against Allied Bank whereas Younis carried the back injury into April 2 semifinal against Wapda at Karachi.

The Sharjah Cup begins Monday with Pakistan facing Sri Lanka in the opener. The team management will take a big gamble if they play the injured duo which may aggravate their injuries and could even rule them out from the home series against New Zealand.

Squad:

Waqar Younis (captain), Inzamam-ul-Haq (vice-captain), Shahid Afridi, Imran Nazir, Younis Khan, Yousuf Youhana, Misbah-ul-Haq, Rashid Latif (wicket-keeper), Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Malik and Faisal Iqbal.